Tag Archives: blogging

April 28, 2013 · 7:42 pm

Time Divided

Over the last month or so, I’ve been writing more and more at a steadily increasing rate. Ya’ll haven’t seen it, since ya’ll aren’t reading my new blog (and for good reason) and you haven’t seen the fragments of the short stories I’ve been working on (once again, with good reason), but the writing is happening more.

Which means, unfortunately, that I’ve had less time to spend over here. I used to write more than the quote I set for myself. You can see a few times last year when I wrote more than ten entries per month. This year, however, you would be hard-pressed to find a week where I’d written more than my required two entries.

I can’t say that I’m entirely bummed out that writing is getting in the way of writing. I’m just letting ya’ll know that I am writing, even if I’m not writing.

-D-

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March 31, 2013 · 9:20 pm

Bloggin’

With my waning, most likely, undiagnosed bronchitis on the one hand and wedding plan on the other, I haven’t had much time for blogging. I’m not asking for forgiveness, since most of you are spambots and were not offended anyway, I’m just offering up an explanation why I haven’t been able to stick to my blog schedule at all.

In truth, blogging and writing have slid so far down the list of priorities that I’m having trouble seeing them. I feel like I’ve been phoning it in the last couple of months as my job has managed to drain most of my energy in a surprising fashion.

I keep plugging away and hoping that something is going to happen, but all that’s really happening is I’m beat after work and during the weekend, I do not want to sit in front of my computer after doing that all week long. I at least have a hobby now, which I’ve maintained for a surprising amount of time, but now I want something else.

The blog has to change. The format has to change. I’m not feelin’ it and you’re not feelin’ it.

Let’s work together.

Throw some ideas up and see what we get.

-D-

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March 13, 2013 · 8:32 pm

Starting Anew

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve decided to start a new blog and it’s been a startling experience. In the last two days, I’ve written four entries. They didn’t require soul searching or deep thinking or effort to write.
And that hasn’t been the case here for a very long time. Often, I struggle to come up with ideas or concepts to write about. That’s a big reason why you get to sit through new features every other day.
But the new bog has a single focus and a single point of conversation to start from. I know what I’m going to be writing about the moment I sit down. And while that sounds constricting, it’s actually freeing. It frees me from paralyzing choice.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still be writing here twice a week, but this other blog has given me ideas about how to energize this blog.
That’s a good thing and I’m looking forward to the next few weeks.
-D-

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March 6, 2013 · 9:30 pm

Branching Out

I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a new blog, in addition to this one.

There are a few reasons why I shouldn’t and not very many reasons why I should. In fact, to be truthful, I can’t think of a single reason of why I should except that I want to.

I’ve been futzing around with a new(ish) hobby for a couple of months now and I want to document it. I always want to document the things I do, but I don’t think this blog could take the burden of yet one more of my bursts of intense interest (see: baseball, beer, boxing, running, horror movies). I want to pare this blog down a bit more, steer the focus more back to what’s going on with my writing and my life and maybe offset my numerous hobby bursts to a second blog.

That means a lot more work. And, if you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you might notice a surly unwillingness to put any work in this blog. But in order to make this one better, I need to keep tweaking and changing and finding new outlets.

We’ll see. I haven’t decided anything yet. But maybe there’ll be another blog out there with my name on it. I mean, aside from all those Xanga blogs I have lying around.

-D-

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January 1, 2013 · 2:59 pm

I Do Resolve

As has become a tradition, I will spend today not looking at how I goofed up last year’s resolutions, but looking at how I can improve for the following year. As I grow ever older, I’m learning more and more about myself; not just in how I need to improve, but in the best way to improve. For example:

1. This year I want to write two to three blog entries a week. Last year I resolved to write ten blog entries a month and I succeeded, though there were a few months that the last week of the month was loaded down with last minute entries. While I don’t necessarily want to increase the number of entries I write this year, I want do want to increase their regularity. Previous attempts to write on specific days failed miserably. I would get so hung up on trying to write on Monday/Wednesday/Friday that I if missed those specific days, I wouldn’t feel the need to make up the day on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday/Sunday. With this new resolution, you get the same amount of content, spread out regularly through the month and, hopefully, less last minute, badly written entries.

2. I hesitate to mention writing projects. I’ve found through my own experience that announcing a writing project or a planned writing project removes all of my interest in actually carrying out the project. So secret resolutions go here.

3. I want to run, continuously, around the reservoir. In the last few weeks, I’ve fallen away from my running, but hell, this is the time to get back on old horses. It’s always better to pick a specific goal rather than a general one (I will be able to run two miles in five minutes versus I will run more), so as my first running goal I want to be able to run completely around the local reservoir without stopping. I hope, truly hope, it won’t take all year to do, but once I accomplish this goal, I can adjust accordingly and choose a new target.

4. I want to expand my cooking knowledge. I want to plan a series of recipes to make throughout the year, some difficult, some less so, but right now my recipe repertoire is a little lacking. Cooking, to me, is like magic, but, you know, real. The ability to make a good meal, a meal that people want to eat, is an ability worth having. My end goal this year is to make….bouillabaisse. Don’t ask why I chose this. Maybe because it’s French and French cooking has a certain something about it. Maybe it’s because Alton Brown talked me into it with an episode on making bouillabaisse. Maybe because it seems difficult, but doable. Whatever the reason, it’s one more goal for the year. To make bouillabaisse.

And that’s it for goals I have for the whole year. I have other things I want to do and accomplish, but they’re small projects or events or none of your business (for now). I hope there’ll be some exciting things in store for ya’ll.

In the meantime, enjoying a metric ton of beer reviews.

-D–

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November 26, 2012 · 7:37 pm

Push it to the Limit

Writing every day and for between 1500 to 2000 words at a time (and sometimes more) has been one of the harder things I’ve done. It’s not about the amount of words. I can write that much in an hour and then I’m done. That’s not bragging, at least I don’t think it is. 1000 words does not take much effort to put down on paper, if you actually care about those words anyway.

No, it was the writing everyday and pushing myself to write every day. It’s the writing when I’m worn out from work and all I want to do is drink beer and watch a bad movie and listen to loud music. It’s writing when all I want to do is forget about what words look like and what a page is and when I just want to throw my computer through a window because I…just…can’t…type…one…more…word.

I’m not one of those people who’s very good at finding deep reserves of inner strength just as they’re fading and about to lose the big race. I’m more the person who says, “Well, I guess that’s that” stop running and walk away.

I have wanted to give this up. It’s such an awful book. It’s such a drain on my time and energy and I’m tired of sitting here and creating a shitty book that should not and will not see the light of day. And it is a shitty book, filled with purple prose and weird, hateful little people and monstrous imagery that disturbs me and disturbs me further when I realize I came up with it.

But…I will not let this be the arena in which I lay down and die, rather than just struggle on for those precious few inches. I will find that last bit of energy, I will find those secret reserves. I will dig deep. I will find the eye of the tiger. I will rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I will finish this shitty book, because it tasks me. It tasks me. And if my chest were a mortar I would burst my heart upon it. For hate’s sake, I will finish this novel.

For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath…at thee.

-D-

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November 12, 2012 · 8:26 pm

A Confession

It was, perhaps, a bit of extreme optimism that made me think that I could update the blog three times a week while I was also trying to write a fifty-thousand word novel in a single month.

Now, to be clear, I am not going to completely give up on updating my blog. But, I think we will both just have to accept that there will be days like this where you’re going to be reading entries like this; short, to the point and not really what you were expecting to read.

But, surprise is the spice of life and I think you’ll manage to do without a proper blog entry for a few more days.

-D-

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November 2, 2012 · 7:17 pm

Good Habits Are Hard to Make

I’ve gotten used to writing every day. It’s what I do. I come home from work. Get dinner and/or a beer, sit down in front of the computer and try and  make words appear on the screen.

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve felt that way. For the last two years, writing has been a special occasion; something I do for holidays or events or because I really have nothing better to do.

But now writing has turned into part of my day, as opposed to something that I could do today.

But it still feels very fragile, like if I stopped, even for a day, I would fall out of the habit and go back to the way things used to be. And that scares me so much. I don’t want to go back to that. Writing is so embedded in who I am and I how I think of myself, that I can’t believe how far I let it slip away from me before. I can’t believe how I almost let it fall away completely.

You can’t just call yourself a writer, but never produce anything. I don’t want to be that person. I don’t want to be the person who tries to skate by on the stories that he wrote five years ago.

But that’s what I’ve been doing. I love the stories in my book, but I wrote them a lifetime ago. You should, by all means, read them and enjoy them. But I was a different person then, in the long ago. I want to write stories that reflect who I am now.

So I’m going to keep moving forward, laying down words, one after the other.

It takes 66 days to build a good habit. I have 34 more days to go.

And I’m going to make it.

-D-

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November 1, 2012 · 6:28 pm

NANOWRIMO: Day 1

It is November 1st, which means it’s the first day for NANOWRIMO.

For those that don’t know, NANOWRIMO stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by November 30th. The goal is not to write a great novel, or a good novel or even an average novel. The goal is to finish writing a novel, period.

For people like me, who rarely, if ever, finish anything, just finishing a novel is a big deal.

So, once again, for the third time, I’m participating.

I have to write 1,667 words a day to accomplish the goal, which means that I won’t be updating the blog as much as I did in October, but I am re-instituting the three days a week update schedule. From now on, I’ll be updating the blog on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

But, right now, I have to get started on my novel.

If you’re participating this year too, chime in below. I’m going to try and not go it alone this year and participate in the community. We’ll see how that goes.

No more procrastinating.

-D-

 

Check out my profile and my progress HERE.

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October 31, 2012 · 7:05 pm

31 Days of Spoooktacular: Happy Halloween

I’m drinking a beer called Vampire Slayer (brewed by Clown Shoes). This isn’t a review, I’m just letting you know that I have a dark, flavor rich beer and you should get some yourself.

No, really I’m just here to say, Happy Halloween. We’ve spent a lot of time together, you and I and it’s been a hell of a ride. There were conventions and philosophizing on fear and beer and apple picking and more philosophizing. And, now, it’s drawing to a close. Soon, people will be slapping pictures of hand-turkeys on the walls and throwing cornucopias everywhere and eating way too much food. The time of reveling in horror and monsters and goblins and scary things is drawing to a close.

I’m a little sad, but mostly relieved. I can talk about other things now. I can review beers that don’t taste like pumpkins. I can watch movies that aren’t just boobs, blood and bad guys. I can pontificate on politics or work or Sprint’s terrible service.

But, just one more time, I’m going to watch a horror movie, drink a Halloween themed-beer  and relax for the last night before….

 

 

NANOWRIMO.

 

See you tomorrow.

And have a Happy Halloween!

-D-

 

PS If you need some spooky fun, check this out. It’s an audio dramatization of my story, The Song and Dance Man. Thumbs up.

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